Who To Follow On Day One Of The St Leger Festival

The feature race of day one at Town Moor On Wednesday is the Listed Scarborough Stakes over five furlongs that sees plenty of frequently raced sprinters go to post.

With that in mind this race throws out an old favourite of ours and we think this gelding has a huge chance to get back to winning ways in it.

The John Quinn trained El Astronaute is dropping back in grade from his recent exploits and if running to his normal level will be tough to beat.

The six year olds highlights this season were back to back wins in Ireland at Cork and the at the Curragh in the Rockingham Handicap.

Since then he has been outclassed in Group 1 and 2 races recently but back in a Listed contest makes him very dangerous and he has shown more pace in other races than a lot of the field..

Charlie Appleby is one of the elite trainers in the sport and like any big festival in Britain he has some big chances on the first two with two stand out runners on Wednesday.

The first comes in the first race of the day with Lazuli and this two year old colt has only raced once like many of the runners in the contest but he showed plenty of ability on his debut at Newmarket when landing a Class 4.

That was William Buick's first ride back from injury and the rider is on board again today with the juvenile more than likely to come on for his first run of the season.

The other Godolphin exploit for Appleby on the day is Loxley and this four year old gelding has only raced once this year over in Meydan in the Group One Jebel Hatta contest where he finished a decent fifth and if fresh from the break it looks the best form on offer.

Before that on his last run in 2018 he was second in a Group Two over in France which again reads really well from a form perspective and coming down to to a Class 2 makes him hard to overlook.

The Newmarket trainer will be looking to get his St Leger festival off to a good start and with these two chances he will not be far away.

The Leger Legends Classified Stakes over a mile is quite a quirky affair with ex professional jockeys jumping back in the saddle for one time only.

A lot of the riders involved are also trying their hand on the flat having previously been jumps jockeys which again adds another dimension to the race.

But the rider we think is worth following in the race is Brian Harding who gets the leg up on One To Go for trainer Tim Easterby.

This three year old gelding has been ultra consistent this season only finishing outside the top three once in his last six races.

Two starts ago he won nicely at Beverley and then at the same track finished second in a similar event to this on Wednesday which makes him a player.